Seven Escambia County bridges failed Florida Department of Transportation inspections in 2017, four of which remain closed.

All of the failed inspections and closures occurred in District 5 in the northern two-thirds of the county from Cantonment to Century.

During a town hall meeting Monday night organized by District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry, residents who already feel their area doesn't get the attention it deserves, learned that more bridges are likely to be closed as they reach the end of their lives.

"You look down there in Pensacola, and everything looks beautiful," said one of the 30 or so residents who came to the informal meeting in Walnut Hill Community Center. "You come up here and we have to beg, borrow and steal to get something done."

"We pay the taxes and get the same thing we've been getting," another resident said.

Escambia County has 145 bridges and 110 of those are in District 5. Of those, 53 were built out of wood from 1942 to 1970, said county Public Works Director Joy Blackmon.

Workers drive pilings into Freeman Springs on Arthur Brown Road as part of an emergency bridge replacement on Jan. 01, 2018.(Photo: Escambia County)

FDOT is expected to inspect eight more bridges before the end of the month.

"We expect that there will be issues with just about everything they touch, which is not a bad thing," Blackmon said. "We need to know if our maintenance is not keeping (the bridges) where we can keep it open to every load bearing (level) that we need, we need to know that."

In the decades since 1970, Escambia County has built or replaced fewer than 25 of its bridges.

Many of the wooden bridges have been rehabilitated several times to extend them well past their 35-year design life.

One bridge on Arthur Brown Road across Freeman Springs closed on Nov. 7 and resulted in traffic having to take a 14-mile detour.

The County Commission approved an emergency appropriation for County Administrator Jack Brown to replace the bridge as quickly as possible.

A section of a steel prefabricated bridge is lowered across Freeman Springs on Arthur Brown Road.(Photo: Escambia County)

County workers began demolition work in early December on the bridge and a contractor was hired to install pilings to support a prefabricated steel bridge by early January.

"This is a pretty fast-tracked process for us compared to what you've seen in a lot of our bridge construction scenarios," said Wes Moreno, county deputy director of public works.

The prefabricated bridge was brought to the site and installed on Jan 5.

"That happened literally in a day," Moreno said. "…Almost exactly in a month from when the actual turning of the dirt began, they are ready to pave the road back to the bridge. And had it not rained today, they would've paved it today."

After the presentation from county staff, residents voiced concerns that roads and bridges were not as well-funded in the northern part of the county compared to the southern part.

County road striping has not been done or has washed away on some of the roads in the rural parts of the county and makes the road more dangerous, residents said.

Barry said he agreed with the residents that District 5 had not gotten what it needed in the past, but said the district has received more funding in recent years.

He also told residents to not assume he knows about all of the issues they have with the county. He encouraged them to contact his office so he is aware of any problems and can attempt to help solve them.

"All I can say is that I'm doing the best that I can, and I've gotten a lot of support from the board that we currently have as far as allocating resources out here," Barry said. "I've been relatively successful. If I can keep them off the beach, If I can keep the beach from getting a lot of the common dollars, then I'll be in good shape."